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SE-1108 "Kumaro star"
Strange Encounter #1108 "Kumaro Star" Official story On January 25th 357 DoS United Cantium Conglomerate ship UCCS-Dubia received a distress call from a ship under the name of Kumaro star and moved to assist the transport. The transport was found adrift 6 light years away from Falciou system. Upon arrival they found the Kumaro Star drifting through space and without power for an unknown amount of time, the distress call had come from an automated system after a recent meteor impact through the hull. The team attempted to activate ship systems computers remotely but failed. The Cantium organized a boarding party and moved to access the ship. Upon arriving at the ship the five man team split into two groups one went to investigate the impact through the ship and the other entered inside the ship to attempt to reactivate the ship manually. The exterior group found that the puncture went through several containers on the ships stern and it's engine compartment, upon investigation they found that all of the containers were empty. The team that entered the ship found that the interior of the ship was covered in vines and overgrown plant like substances. The team also found floating corpses of the former crew and confirmed they died due to oxygen deprivation. Before heading to the bridge they went to the hydroponics and found that the plants that had been there had burst out of their tanks and completely over taken the ship leaving it full of vines and roots that punched their way out of the hydroponics and took over the entirety of the ship. They attempted to check the crew quarters but found that the door was jammed shut and instead went to the bridge to activate the computer. Upon entering the bridge the team encountered the captain, helmsmen and navigator rooted to their chairs due to the overgrown plants; suggesting that they died at their station before being wrapped up by the plants. However the navigator had been so wrapped up in plant vines that he was nearly unrecognizable, one of the teams report says that it appeared as though his hand had been reaching out for help as it looked like he had been consumed by the large plant. Upon activating the computer they found that most of the systems had been corrupted, farther investigation showed that computer systems had been jammed up by the overgrown plants making piloting the ship impossible. Photos of the crew were taken and the team attempted to run cables to the Kumaro Star from the UCCS-Dubia. Upon attaching the cables the ship suddenly violently began building up heat and the crew fearfully disconnected the lines and moved to a safe distance away. After a few minutes of heat building up an explosion ruptured the ship splitting it apart. The team attempted to find the remains of the ship but were unable to locate any of it and after several hours of searching they gave up and returned to base. Once they returned they attempted to record their findings only to find out no ship named the Kumaro Star ever existed, there were zero records of ships departing or arriving at any port. Due to UCC navy law any civilian ship encountered must be reported and those reports are made public so long as they are not a security threat. The report quickly gathered public attention and there were no end to public theories about what had happened. The official report suggested that the ship lost power and they couldn't use the CO2 scrubbers on the ship so they attempted to boost their oxygen production and eliminate CO2 build up by introducing some sort of growth hormone but it didn't work in time and the crew died only for the plants to over grow the crews bodies, the Kumaro Star was likely a smuggling ship and had changed the name to avoid suspicion after leaving port; without the ships computer this would be impossible to say for certain. Conspiracy theorists suggest that this was an OSNI plan to use a smuggling ship to deliver a bioweapon that was intended to be delivered to the Grand Duchy but the plants broke free of containment and devoured the crew, the unopened crew quarters likely containing more bodies devoured by the plants. Of course without anything beyond the report and a handful of photos none of these theories are provable. Investigation Due to the isolation and quickness of the discovery the Office of Strategic Naval Intelligence was unable to intercept or study the Kumaro Star. An informal investigation was launched but was unable to find any trace of a ship ever using the name Kumaro star existing. The event was recorded under Strange Encounter #1108 with investigation listed as pending in hopes that any future evidence might come to light.